Emperador may borrow £129 million for W&M takeover

Emperador, the alcoholic drinks division of Alliance Global Group, is looking to borrow around £129 million to help finance the acquisition of Scotch maker Whyte & Mackay.

Alliance Global chairman Andrew Tan told the Manila Standard Today that the company would borrow at least 30% of the total acquisition cost of Whyte and Mackay, which amounts to around £430 million.

“We don’t need to raise much because the company has very little debt. I think with the entire purchase price, which is about £430 million, we probably need to raise 30% of through borrowing and the rest we can fund,” Tan said.

“The company has a lot of cash and no debt in the last 10 years. We will just need to borrow a little plus the cash we have in the balance sheet,” he added.

Alliance Global chairman Andrew Tan

Separately, Emperador president Winston Co told reporters gathering at the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Monday (23 June): “With the acquisition, we can fast track company growth and dominate the Philippine market and became a global player as well.”

As the drinks business reported in May, Emperador signed an agreement with United Spirits to acquire Whyte & Mackay group and its units, which the company expects to immediately increase its earnings.

Whyte and Mackay is the fifth largest maker of Scotch whisky in the world with a history of more than 160 years and ownership of additional brands including The Dalmore and Jura. It also holds substantial aged whisky inventories. The group has a production capacity of 50 million litres of alcohol a year with five distilleries and one bottling plant in Scotland.

Emperador earlier said it planned to double its net income to £155 million by 2016-2017 from last year’s £78 million through expansion and acquisition.